1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved structure for portable electronic device. In particular, the present invention relates to a shockproof and vibration proof structure for mini storage device inside portable electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In today's information age, mankind has become more and more dependent upon electronic products. In accordance with today's needs for faster speed, higher performance, and miniaturization, various portable electronic devices have become mainstream products, such as mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), and MP3 player. Portable electronic device has become a crucial part of the modern lifestyle and working environment, and is also heading towards a multi-functional trend, making the portable device becoming a multimedia system, not only for listening to music, but also for watching movies, images, and at the same time, having camera and video functions.
In accordance with the needs for higher memory storage requirements for portable electronic devices, the mini storage devices such as the Mini-HD, with capacity as high as 20 G, 30 G, and above, indeed have large amounts of storage space. They have already been adopted by portable electronic devices, thus becoming a popular memory storage for portable electronic devices. As well already known, a hard disk is highly vulnerable to impact and shock damages from external sources. Particularly, when the hard disk is in accessing data, the impact from the external force is more severe. Therefore, an ability to protect the mini storage device inside portable electronic device for preventing the effects of external impact and shock is becoming a concerning issue for design considerations in portable electronic devices.
A Taiwan Patent No. 481329 has disclosed an improved shockproof structure for hard disk. It includes a hard disk base, several pieces of rail supports with the slide rail, several springs, and pieces of elastic material. The aforementioned spring and a rail support hitching hook are suspended in the hard disk base. And also, several pieces of elastic material are disposed at an appropriate position between the hard disk base and the rail support, while only preserving the hard disk drive storage space and the heat dissipation space. The aforementioned slide rail is taken and anchored firmly at the sides of the hard disk drive. The hard disk drive slides into the rail support and inserting into the hard disk base, which also contains the shockproof structure.
Based on the above prior art, a conventional shockproof structure of hard disk includes four main components: slide rail, screw, rail support, and elastic material. By using the screw to secure the slide rails at the end region on two sides of the hard disk, combining the hard disk and the slide rail to place together inside the rail support, and relying on the elastic material which surrounds the outside of the rail support for absorbing external shock and vibration, the goal of hard disk protection can be reached. Such structural design, not only requires many components and have higher manufacturing cost during replacement of the hard disk drive, but also when the hard disk drive is necessary to be replaced, the hard disk drive is necessary to be taken out first and the screws are detached for releasing the slide rails on both sides of the hard disk drive. After replacement of hard disk drive, the screws are used again for affixing the slide rails on both sides of the new hard disk drive. Therefore, the hard disk drive replacement procedures wasting assembling time, as well as increasing assembly complexity and degree of difficulty.